AT&T ‘storytellers’ will help SEC mark 75th anniversary

To
help the Southeastern Conference celebrate its
75th anniversary, AT&T will offer its subscribers exclusive text and video
content for their handsets.

Former President Bill Clinton, actress Ashley Judd and
quarterback Peyton Manning are among the familiar faces who will be featured as
“storytellers” on the vignettes, which will last between one and two minutes.
It’s part of the conference’s diamond anniversary theme titled “Stories of
Character.”

Creative Presence Partners, Atlanta, is the conference’s
agency for the project. Host Communications and Career Sports and Entertainment
assisted with production.

Cingular originally signed a multiyear deal to be one of
the SEC’s two corporate champions in 2006 before the rebranding to AT&T
began. The sponsorship for 2006-07 was activated under the Cingular flag, but
it moves under the AT&T brand for 2007-08.

Dr Pepper is the league’s other corporate champion, the
highest level of corporate partner, which typically requires an investment in
the high-six figures annually, industry insiders said.

AT&T will provide notice of the vignettes this week
to subscribers with text and video packages. Normal data and messaging charges
will apply. The videos will launch later this month.

AT&T will support the downloadables through in-store
displays, radio and print ads, as well as SECsports.com, the league’s official
Web site of which AT&T is the presenting sponsor. The vignettes also will
be available on the Web site as part of the video on demand.

The
videos are at the core of AT&T’s effort to increase its SEC offerings on
the handset. Throughout the season, AT&T hopes to offer subscribers
highlights from a game of the week, press conference clips and other
downloadables. There also will be text offerings, such as alerts for breaking
news, teasers on upcoming games and player of the week announcements.